Getting Away from it All
by Tyranusfan
Summary: Set after The Avengers, Steve takes a trip across country, ending up in Southern California. Spending the day with Tony Stark was the last thing he suspected would happen... Rated T to be safe.


_Movieverse. Set about a week after the events of the The Avengers. Mainly, I just wanted Steve to meet someone._

_Thanks to geminigrl11 for her beta-ing skills, as always. _

**Getting Away From It All**

"_Sir, the requested modifications to Captain Roger's motorcycle will be complete in approximately four hours_."

Steve glanced around Tony Stark's laboratory uncomfortably. He already thought that being in the 21st Century was like being on Mars, but Stark's omnipresent computer-slash-butler was something else.

Tony, on the other hand, seemed to take it for granted. "Thank you, JARVIS. How long for the Mk VII?"

"_Modifications to the life support system are completed, sir, but the new emergency power cells will not be fully charged for approximately ten hours_."

"Hm," Tony frowned. "We're going to have to work on that."

"_I can divert additional resources to the cells if you wish_."

Tony shook his head, gesturing toward Steve. "No, no. Guests first."

"Really, Tony, I can wait." Steve offered. Stark just scoffed and started tapping buttons on one of his computer screens.

The day had been a blur, which Steve was figuring out was par for the course when Tony Stark was involved. After the battle in New York City, he, like the rest of the newly dubbed "Avengers," had gone to ground. S.H.I.E.L.D. was fielding the avalanche of questions, complaints, and debates about the incident with Loki and the Chitauri. It was best for the heroes to stay out of the way until the political dust settled.

Steve had taken the opportunity to ride his motorcycle across the country. The new Interstate highways—well, new to him—made that far easier than it would have been in his time. He'd taken time to stop and see some sights, of course. There was no rush. Mount Rushmore and Hoover Dam were his favorites so far. Steve had seen them in newsreels, but never in person.

He'd arrived in Los Angeles about a week after leaving Brooklyn, and after once again failing to figure out how to unlock the screen his new "cell phone," he'd found a payphone and called the number Tony had left with them, which turned out to be his Malibu mansion. Steve had only wanted directions to the Sequoia National Forest, since he'd gotten turned around on L.A.'s massive freeway interchange. Instead, Tony had badgered him into coming by for lunch which led to an impromptu road tour of L.A. and San Diego, during which Tony had grilled him about his ride out from New York, which led to a discussion of what kind of gizmos Steve should have on his motorcycle.

_ You never know when someone's going to jump you, Cap. Trust me. Just ask Pepper about Monaco._

Which led them to Tony's high-tech garage, and a generous helping of some of the wildest modifications to a motorcycle Steve had seen since Howard Stark had supped-up his Harley back during the war. There was a compact storage box for his uniform, a digital, jam-resistant communications system that tied into both the S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries satellite networks, two concealed sub-machine guns—which _had_ to be illegal on the road—a self-sealing gas tank, an _autopilot_, and a deployable, bullet-proof titanium shield mounted beneath the handlebars.

The frightening thing was, Stark had mentioned something about all that just being spares he had lying around the lab, and how he was going to work on a better bike for the future. He'd been talking at a mile a minute by the time they'd walked into the house after lunch. Steve had only been able to nod along.

Steve realized now he was staring into space, and blinked his musings away. He took a drink of the water he was holding and sat the glass down on a nearby table. One of Stark's odd-looking robots, one that looked like a small crane arm with a cylindrical head, turned and made an aggravated noise. Steve could swear the machine was _looking_ at him.

"Sorry," he muttered. The machine stared at him a moment longer, than went back to whatever it was doing.

"That's just Dum-E," Stark called out. "Don't mind him."

He stepped over to Stark's work area and sank onto an empty stool. "Doesn't it ever feel strange?"

"What?" Tony asked, not looking up from whatever had his interest on the monitor.

"All this. Your house _talks_ to you."

Tony looked up at him, giving Steve that half-frown, half-smirk that seemed to be his default facial expression. "Technically, it's not the house. JARVIS is a multi-functional artificially intelligent software program that runs a home computing and control system."

Steve just stared at Tony, who smiled cheekily and shrugged. "He's really Just A Rather Very Intelligent System."

"_Thank you, sir_." JARVIS intoned from…wherever.

Steve glanced up—he assumed the eavesdropping machine was _up_, for lack of a better idea—and nodded. That seemed to be what Tony was best at doing: reducing Steve to helpless nodding. _Second best_, Steve corrected himself. Tony's Number 1 skill was pressing his buttons. Fortunately, Tony had refrained from practicing that today.

JARVIS either didn't notice or didn't care. He spoke again even as Steve tried to process what Tony had said. "_Sir, Miss Potts and Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes have arrived upstairs. Shall I direct them to the lab_?"

"Sure." Tony spun on his chair and stood. Steve did the same. Moments later, Pepper arrived wearing one of her impressive outfits, along with a dark-skinned man Steve hadn't met before who was dressed in a suit but no tie. Pepper tapped a code into the holographic door controls and entered.

Steve looked down politely when Pepper and Tony briefly kissed and exchanged greetings.

Pepper then turned to him. "Captain. Pleasure to see you, again."

Steve smiled, extending his hand. "Ma'am."

Behind her, Tony began waving and making a slicing motion across his throat. "Bad idea, very bad. Don't call her ma'am."

Steve's mouth dropped open. When had _that_ gone out of style? "I'm—I'm sorry, ma—I mean, Pepp—, Miss Potts! Sorry."

Pepper smiled warmly, though, not seeming offended. "No, Steve, it's fine. I, actually find it flattering coming from you."

Steve relaxed somewhat. Peggy would be laughing at him right about now. His skills at talking to women hadn't improved at all. _Stop it,_ he mentally chastised himself. He didn't want to think about her just then.

Tony, on the other hand, seemed offended. "'Flattering?' Since when do you find that flattering?"

Pepper threw him a patient smirk. "I've always found it flattering."

"You never found it flattering when I said it. You said it annoyed you."

"Maybe it only annoyed me 12% of the time."

Steve tilted his head, not sure what that meant. Apparently, it was a private joke.

"How much longer are you going to punish me for that?" Tony asked, exasperated but not heated.

The dark-skinned man stepped around them and offered his hand to Steve. "They're going to be like this for a while. I usually just ignore them."

Tony snapped out of his banter with Pepper and stepped up. "Ah, yes. Colonel James Rhodes, meet Captain Steve Rogers."

Steve reflexively straightened a bit at the word _colonel_. Rhodes noticed immediately. "Nah, nah, I don't usually say the rank when I'm out of uniform. Everyone calls me Rhodey."

"Rhodey. All right. Steve." Steve replied, shaking the man's hand. "Are you…Army?"

"Air Force. Acquisitions, which is how I met pain-in-the-ass here." Rhodey corrected, tossing a thumb in Tony's direction. "But, it's an honor to meet _you_, sir."

"Rhodey's been talking about you all week, ever since he found out I was working with you." Tony interjected. "I think he's torn between abject fanboying, and intense, _intense_ jealousy that I got to work with you and he didn't."

Steve had no idea what "fanboying" was, but he got the gist of what they were saying. "Well, I don't think you have much to be jealous of. We just did our jobs."

His modesty only seemed to bring out the _Tony_ in Tony. "You see that, guys? Seriously, he _really_ talks like that. It's humbling, and…strangely inspiring, all at the same time. You know, when he isn't calling me a cowardly, undisciplined, spoiled rich boy."

A blush rushed to Steve's face. He had hoped the relatively pleasant day he'd spent here had made Stark forget about their argument on the helicarrier. An embarrassed apology rushed its way to his lips. "Tony—"

"You see that, too?" Rhodey exclaimed excitedly. "Finally! Someone to back me up."

Pepper was grinning, too. "Modest, brave, _and_ perceptive…."

Tony glared at them. "_Anyway_, Pepper and I, Rhodey and…someone whose name I can't remember—"

"Bridgid," Rhodes supplied.

"—yes, are all going out. Double date. Steve, you should join us. There's a Thai place down by the waterfront, you'll love it." Tony finished, not missing a beat. He circled Steve and grabbed his coat off the back of his desk chair.

Steve immediately shook his head. They obviously had these plans and he didn't want to intrude. He might be seven decades out of touch with the world, but even Steve knew what a fifth wheel was and how it felt to be one. "No, no. That's…fine. I don't want to butt in on your evening."

His statement met with a chorus of objections from the three of them, but Steve stood his ground.

Tony lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Come on, Steve. You gotta live a little. My grandfather got more action when he was your age, and he didn't look anywhere near as good."

Without his intending to, Steve's mind flashed back to Peggy and boot camp. _Faster ladies! Come on! My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul!_

Tony seemed to note the change in his mood, but Steve didn't want to get into that in front of everyone. He forced a polite smile and tried to sound nonchalant. "No, really. I'd better stay. JARVIS might need to know something else about the bike."

That excuse met with another arched eyebrow from Tony. "You really haven't been paying attention at all today, have you?" He continued before Steve could reply. "That's all right. More for the rest of us. When we get back we'll open the bar upstairs."

"Fair enough," Steve said, smiling when Pepper and Rhodey seemed to be satisfied. Tony walked past him, sending a playful elbow to his left side. Steve couldn't suppress the pained grunt fast enough, which caused Stark to spin and rake his eyes from Steve's side to his face and back again.

"What was that?"

Steve waved him off. "Nothing." When Tony glared disbelievingly, he amended. "Seriously. Just a little sore from where that Martian death ray or whatever it was caught me in the ribs. I'm fine."

Tony didn't seem convinced and pointed to Steve's wounded left side distractedly. "It was more an ionized plasma discharge—I thought the medics cleared you back in New York."

"They did. It's mostly healed. Just a few bruises now. I've had worse." Steve downplayed the injuries he'd gotten between being hurled out that bank window and being shot on the bridge. None of the blows by themselves had been too bad, but they piled all onto one side, which compounded the damage. His body was already mostly healed.

Though, the long ride out from New York on his bike had been hell. Steve decided to keep that part to himself. There'd been a lot of people hurt far worse than he during the attack on Manhattan.

Tony eyed him a moment, but then seemed to relent. It was odd. Stark hadn't struck Steve as the type to worry so much about…anyone. They'd worked well together during the battle, but they weren't exactly friends. At least, Steve hadn't thought so. Tony was showing more concern now than he had a week earlier.

Maybe Steve wasn't the only one who took a while to process things.

"All right," Stark backed away, grabbing Pepper and Rhodey and heading for the door. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Steve rolled his eyes. He doubted there was much Tony Stark wouldn't do.

"And don't go anywhere. Seriously. Rhodey has about forty _thousand_ questions for you, and he's not going to let you cross the State line unless you spill."

"I will be here," Steve promised. "Have a good time."

The three of them disappeared up the stairs, leaving Steve alone in the automated garage, listening to JARVIS and his machines laboring away on the motorcycle. A whirring noise beside him made him turn. Dum-E had rolled up next to him, and was holding out the glass of ice water he'd been holding earlier. The glass had been refilled. Steve grinned.

"Thank you."

Dum-E made a high-pitched electronic chirp and nodded its mechanical head once.

**CAP IM CAP IM CAP**

"_The score is now twenty-four to zero, Captain Rogers. Shall I reset the board?_"

Steve sighed. "Sure." He pointed at Dum-E across the digital checkerboard that JARVIS was projecting across one of Tony's lab tables. "You were holding out on me!"

With a suspiciously prideful sound, Dum-E bobbed his mechanical head up and down. The projection reset their checkers on the board. Steve held up his hand. "I'm going first this time."

Dum-E made a noncommittal noise in response, as Steve reached out and touched one of the glowing disks and tapped it, sliding his hand forward. The checker followed.

"You're not gonna beat him."

Steve turned to find Tony leaning against the door to the lab with his arms crossed. "Oh, hi. I didn't hear you come in."

Tony nodded in Dum-E's direction. "Checkers and chess were the first two games I taught him to play when he came online. He's still the reigning champ around here."

"I've noticed that." Steve admitted, smiling at the robot. He still wasn't sure how much it was aware of gestures and looks, but it certainly seemed to react each time. He turned back to Stark. "How was dinner?"

"Great." Tony said, sliding out of his jacket and draping it over his chair. He clapped his hands together. "So, who is she? Was she? Is she?"

"What do you mean?"

Tony looked at him with an expression that Steve would normally describe as sympathy, but with Stark he was never sure. "Every time someone mentions going out, or women, or dating in general, you get a look on your face. I thought it was just your, usual, Boy Scout, blushing schoolboy thing, but I definitely saw it tonight. So, what's her name?"

Steve glanced at the floor. He didn't want to have this conversation, but…Tony seemed like the type to dig until he found out anyway. _Might as well get it over with_… "Peggy. Well, Margaret, but she went by Peggy."

"Mm." Tony nodded, looking down at the floor, as well. His voice got quiet. "Still…alive?"

"Yeah," Steve said, nodding slowly. "I, uh, actually saw her a few weeks ago." Tony looked over but didn't say anything. Steve shrugged. "She said I haven't aged a day."

He let the unspoken part hang between them. She had. She'd lived an entire life. Tony, amazingly, didn't have a smart aleck retort. He was instead staring at the far wall of the garage. "Must—must be rough."

Steve just nodded. There was little else to say, really.

Tony took a deep breath, then spoke again, still quietly. "I'm not really the best one for, you know…therapy, but…if you want to talk about, you know, _stuff_…."

Looking up at him, Steve smiled faintly. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

Stark nodded, then motioned toward the door. "Come on. Bar's open. Rhodey stopped by his place and got his vintage _Captain America_ first issue comic out of his safe. I think he wants you to sign it."

Steve couldn't help but laugh. "His safe? He keeps ten cent comic books in a safe?"

Tony grinned. "Wow, you _are_ out of touch. Come on. Everyone's already drinking."

Steve stood and joined Tony at the door. "Tony, you know I can't get drunk, right?"

If it was news to the other man, it didn't seem to bother him at all. Tony's grin broadened as they headed up the stairs together. "A challenge!"

END


End file.
